No Negligence Where Customer Trips on Overlapping Mats

Reasons for judgement were released today by the BC Supreme Court, Vancouver Registry, dismissing a trip and fall lawsuit where a customer fell on over-lapping mats at a grocery store.
In the recent case (Biason v. Loblaws, Inc) the Plaintiff tripped and fell injuring herself while she walked on overlapping floor mats.  She argued that it was negligent for the store to have these mats overlap each other.  The Court noted that counsel could not point to other cases addressing such a fact pattern but ultimately found there was no negligence.  In dismissing the claim Madam Justice Baker provided the following reasons:

[29]         Mr. Patton testified that he was unaware of any previous incident involving a customer tripping over overlapped mats.  Although there was no direct evidence about the depth of the mats, from the description given, and the appearance of the mats on the recording, they were neither deep nor “plushy”.  The front end of the third mat that overlapped a portion of the rear end of the second mat was not wrinkled or buckled or folded back or lifting up in any unusual fashion.  Part of one mat was simply lying on top of part of another mat.

[30]         There is no evidence that there had been previous accidents due to overlapping mats – the evidence is to the contrary.  There is no evidence that the overlapping of mats was a recognized hazard in the industry.  Other customers had been walking over the mats without incident on the day that Ms. Biason tripped and fell…

[35]         I have read and considered all the other authorities provided by counsel.  Taking the authorities and all of the evidence into account, I have concluded that the plaintiff has failed to establish, on the balance of probabilities, that the placement of the mats in the defendant’s store constituted a failure on the part of the defendant to take reasonable care to ensure that the premises were reasonably safe.  The defendant placed the mats in the entryway to protect customers from a readily apparent and recognizable risk – the risk of slips and fall due to wet floors.  I am of the view that it was not reasonably foreseeable that a customer would fail to lift his or her feet sufficiently while walking to avoid tripping on the edge of one of the mats, even if those mats were slightly overlapping.

[36]         Having found no breach of the standard of care, and therefore no liability on the defendant’s part, Ms. Biason’s action must be dismissed.